The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure. Unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in the present disclosure and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
In wired communication devices, transceiver circuits are coupled to one or more input/output (I/O) pads to transmit and/or receive data signals on one or more transmission lines coupled to the respective I/O pads. The transceiver circuits typically include transistors coupled to the I/O pad. New process technologies allow for transistors of smaller size to be used. However, the smaller transistors may be subjected to electrical overstress at lower voltage levels than larger transistors.